Control device and control method for cleaner, cleaner, control program for cleaner, and integrated electronic circuit

Abstract

A control device for a cleaner that carries out a cleaning operation in home, is provided with a cleaning operation data base on which information relating to cleaning operations of a robot arm is recorded, a correcting operation type determination unit for determining a type of correction of the cleaning operation, a force detection unit for detecting a force of the hand of a person, and a cleaning operation correcting unit that corrects the cleaning operation in accordance with the force of the human hand and the type of correction during the cleaning job of the robot arm.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to a control device and a control method for a cleaner that generate cleaning operations of the cleaner used for carrying out a cleaning job in home and give corresponding instructions, and also concerns such a cleaner and control program for the cleaner as well as an integrated electronic circuit.BACKGROUND ART[0002]In recent years, automatic cleaning robots for home-use or business-use for buildings or the like have been commercialized. A cleaning robot that carries out a cleaning job automatically while confirming a cleaning area by a signal from the sensor of the automatic cleaning robot has been disclosed as the home-use automatic cleaning robot (see Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2). Moreover, as the business-use robot, those robots, which are used for cleaning buildings, and clean a room or floor surface to be cleaned all over, while identifying the position of its own by using an optical sensor or a vision camera, hav...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0033]As described above, in accordance with the control device for a cleaner and the cleaner of the present invention, since the correcting operation type determination unit, the force detection unit, the cleaning operation correcting unit and the control unit are prepared, it becomes possible to provide controlling operations of the cleaner in which, by utilizing pieces of information relating to cleaning operations including the suction force of the cleaning unit and the cleaning position of the cleaning unit and information relating to the force of a person to be applied to the robot arm, the cleaning operation can be easily corrected in accordance with the force of the person.

[0034]Moreover, in accordance with the control method of the cleaner, the control program of the cleaner and the integrated electronic circuits of the present invention, since the correcting operation type determination unit, the cleaning operation correcting unit and the control unit are prepared, it becomes possible to provide controlling operations of the cleaner in which, by utilizing pieces of information relating to cleaning operations including the suction force of the cleaning unit and the cleaning position of the cleaning unit and information relating to the force of a person applied to the robot arm, the cleaning operation can be easily corrected in response to the force of the person detected by the force detection unit and acquired by the information acquiring unit.

[0035]Since the correcting operation type determination unit is prepared, it becomes possible to switch a plurality of cleaning operations automatically without the necessity of using a button or the like.

[0036]Moreover, since the correcting operation type determination unit is prepared, it also becomes possible to make a switch between a correcting process that carries out corrections of a plurality of kinds at one time and a correcting process that carries out a correction of one kind, in accordance of the skill or the like of an operator.

[0037]Furthermore, since a control parameter managing unit and the control unit are further prepared, by setting a mechanical impedance value of the robot arm, in response to the type of a correcting operation, it becomes possible to carry out a controlling operation with a mechanical impedance value being altered, in response to a corrected direction of the robot arm, and also to weaken or stop the suction force or the force to be applied to the cleaning face, during the correcting operation.

Problems solved by technology

Moreover, in Patent Document 5, although the marker is used so as to deal with a sudden occurrence of a soiled portion, this method fails to provide a cleaning job with detailed functions, such as a cleaning function for gaps between pieces of furniture or gaps within a room, or a cleaning operation suitable for the material of the floor surface, or a cleaning operation that is carried out while heavily soiled portions or little soiled portions are being recognized.

Furthermore, in Patent Document 6, although the controlling operation for a traveling direction of the cleaner is available by the remote controlling operation, it is not possible to instinctively operate the control of a suction force, or the degree of an applied force at the time of a wiping job, or the like.

Images